Help Me Finalize A New System

[Ramuman]

After several years with a Pentium 450 at home, the times come for a complete upgrade. I don't expect much gaming to be done on this rig (though I will occasionally), but I want it to be future proof. I'll be picking up a Maxtor 80 or 120GB 8MB HD locally and an Antec case locally as well (along with OS etc.). I'll be fine in terms of parts not otherwise listed (i.e. CD-RW, monitor etc.).

Qty Product Item # Unit Price Qty x Price

Memory (System Memory)
CRUCIAL MICRON 256MB 32x64 PC 3200 DDR RAM
$44.99
x 2 $89.98

Motherboards - Intel
Asus Motherboard for Intel Processors Model P4P8X Retail
$107.99
$107.99

Processors
Intel Pentium 4 / 2.4CGHz 512k socket 478 Hyper Threading
$183.00
$183.00

Video Cards
FIC AT009 RADEON 9000 PRO 64MB 4X AGP (powered by ATI) - OEM
$54.00
$54.00


Subtotal » $434.97

Check it out and offer suggestions. It should actually be quite a bit faster than my current college rig, but I don't plan on upgrading that until Christmas. I have concerns about the video card and RAM quality. I do want to overclock this, but nothing aggresive requiring special cooling. Suggestions appreciated!

[Zoolander]

Hi Ramuman,
Well I just did the same thing basically and ordered a very simular set up. Just got it running today infact. Only thing is I went AMD.
With that nice quad-pumped 800mhz fsb, Intel seems to have the sentiment at the moment. Oh well....
Your choices look wise indeed, considering price/performance, and Yes I want to give you my own two-cents regarding the ram and vid-card hehe.
Geil Ram seems to be friendly to the Intel chipset. I purchased 2x256 (matched) 3200 for $90... it runs at 2-3-3-6. I dont know without checking what the Crucial is running at.
If $$ isnt a problem I would suggest going for a higher rated vid-card... perhaps an ATI 9500pro or 9600 pro. With that you should be good into the future.
Thats about it. Good luck on your build.

[Ramuman]

Originally posted by Zoolander
Hi Ramuman,
Well I just did the same thing basically and ordered a very simular set up. Just got it running today infact. Only thing is I went AMD.
With that nice quad-pumped 800mhz fsb, Intel seems to have the sentiment at the moment. Oh well....
Your choices look wise indeed, considering price/performance, and Yes I want to give you my own two-cents regarding the ram and vid-card hehe.
Geil Ram seems to be friendly to the Intel chipset. I purchased 2x256 (matched) 3200 for $90... it runs at 2-3-3-6. I dont know without checking what the Crucial is running at.
If $$ isnt a problem I would suggest going for a higher rated vid-card... perhaps an ATI 9500pro or 9600 pro. With that you should be good into the future.
Thats about it. Good luck on your build.

Thanks for the tips, I've heard good things about Geil and Buffalo Tech as well. That's a big question mark since thats probably the limiting factor in any overclock (I think the CPU and board should be up for a decent OC ).

As for video card, I'm guessing my parents will just have this computer on the home network and use it occasionally along with another PC, but when I'm at home I never have the time to play games. What I do want is a quality rig thats basically to going to serve as a general purpose rig at home. The Hyperthreading and large HD with 8MB cache seem like something that would make "everyday" tasks smoother.

I plan to upgrade my college rig around the time of Dotham or Prescott/A64 depending on if I feel a laptop or desktop would better serve my needs at the time. Since this is a secondary rig (one that'll be quite a bit faster than my current college rig ) that my parents will likely use more than me, I want this to end up being a cheap rig that I can mess around with this summer. I would spend more were I going to get more out of it .

EDIT: What about PSU? 300...350...400W?

[Zoolander]

Actually PSU is up to you as long as it is quality. My opinion 350watts minimum. Enjoy the Summer

[greg r]

Hey congrats about your new computer, I'm sure you'll love it. I have a couple of suggestions...

If you do plan to overclock, you might want to get some pc3500 or pc3700 RAM, to have more headroom on your ram.

Also, I would go with the Antec True Power line of power supplies. The Antec True 430 watt power supply has worked great for me and 2 of my friends, so I highly recommend it.

And I may be wrong, but I've heard horrible things about Geil ram. Basically stick with Crucial, Corsair, Mushkin, or Kingston. If you go corsair, get the XMS series, if you go Kingston, get the hyperX series.

Other than that it looks good, good luck
-Greg

[Royal Oaks]

Sup Ramu The fight was awesome last night, shoulda seen it.

Anyways, that should get you a nice OC, but I would definitely look at the Buffalo-Tech stuff. Without much voltage (probably ~2.7-2.75VDIMM) you could go probably up to 225 with nice timings. Have you looked at the P4P800??? That is also a nice board, a little more though. The 2.4C should allow for a nice OC. Actually now that I think about it, that will be quite a bit faster than your current rig. I'm guessing you don't want to go AMD with this cuz of the noise. Anyhow, I would say go with the 2 sticks of Buffalo, 2.4C, P4P800, and a TTGI PSU if you need a new one. If you do want a very nice PSU that is pretty cheap, I would suggest this http://directron.com/tt500ss.html That is the next PSU I plan on getting, and although it is probably overkill for your system, it will work perfectly (this thing will hold up to any sort of OCing you plan to do). You probably will spend a good deal of money for the True430 or 380 anyways, and this thing is better. Also, the 9000 should work fine. Looks like a sweet system to me, you should be able to get a nice OC and good gaming rig. Talk to you later.

[Ramuman]

Originally posted by Royal Oaks
Sup Ramu The fight was awesome last night, shoulda seen it.

Anyways, that should get you a nice OC, but I would definitely look at the Buffalo-Tech stuff. Without much voltage (probably ~2.7-2.75VDIMM) you could go probably up to 225 with nice timings. Have you looked at the P4P800??? That is also a nice board, a little more though. The 2.4C should allow for a nice OC. Actually now that I think about it, that will be quite a bit faster than your current rig. I'm guessing you don't want to go AMD with this cuz of the noise. Anyhow, I would say go with the 2 sticks of Buffalo, 2.4C, P4P800, and a TTGI PSU if you need a new one. If you do want a very nice PSU that is pretty cheap, I would suggest this http://directron.com/tt500ss.html That is the next PSU I plan on getting, and although it is probably overkill for your system, it will work perfectly (this thing will hold up to any sort of OCing you plan to do). You probably will spend a good deal of money for the True430 or 380 anyways, and this thing is better. Also, the 9000 should work fine. Looks like a sweet system to me, you should be able to get a nice OC and good gaming rig. Talk to you later.

Yeah heard they took quite a beating....sorry I couldn't catch . So Gatti won and Wards done for? Anyways, other than RAID, is there anything that makes the P4P800 better than the 8X? If not I wouldn't mind saving that money . OK as far as RAM, would I be good with PC3200 (I know it might keep me from some legendary OC were my CPU capable of it, but I'll be happy with a decent OC). The PC3200 is Samsung chips...is that OK? As far as PSU and case, I'm thinking Antec case and PSU in the ~350W range. When I build my college replacement rig over winter, then I'll pull out all the stops (assuming I don't go laptop ). OK as far as video, how is integrated these days if I want to save some money? The 865G boards...any full ATX boards with it? I could always get a cheapo card later if I wanted, but would the integrated video be worse (in 3D) than say a GF2 Ultra or something? I'm trying to keep this as cheap as possible so the parents are happy and will help me out over winter for my real computer.

[Royal Oaks]

Abit IS7-E ~ $99
2.4C ~ $183
Buffalo 256MB PC3200 2 x $45 (This is the stuff you want, it is the best PC3200 out there)

IIRC the on-board video of anything today is still about the same as a GF2MX, so you won't be getting anything spectacular (especially if you go Intel on-board). You can just pick up any cheapy case with a good PSU and that would be the best route I think. A 400W Antec would be good, or 380.

Also, the more I think about it an AMD setup would definitely be cheaper, and you could probably get one pretty quiet.
8RDA+ = ~$85
1700+ @ SVC = ~$60
SVC GC69 HS/F = ~$8 --> (Check this out)
Buffalo 256MB PC3200 2 x $45
Now you could get a decent Radeon card, and case. This would be a sweet setup IMO, and it comes in much cheaper. Just another option, but if you really are trying to go with the lowest costing system, this AMD setup is going to murder everything.

edit: Oh yeah, Ward is done. Gatti pretty much was kickin the crap out of him until he broke his hand in the 3rd or 4th round. Then Ward was back in the fight. He never landed a big left hook to the body(his $$$ punch), but he did knock Gatti down in the 6th. He definitely wasn't anywhere near the level of Gatti, but after the breakage he started doing a lot better. Another classic fight between those two, and that 3 fight series was definitely one of the best of all time. I'm sure you read about it somewhere.

[Ramuman]

Originally posted by Royal Oaks
Abit IS7-E ~ $99
2.4C ~ $183
Buffalo 256MB PC3200 2 x $45 (This is the stuff you want, it is the best PC3200 out there)

IIRC the on-board video of anything today is still about the same as a GF2MX, so you won't be getting anything spectacular (especially if you go Intel on-board). You can just pick up any cheapy case with a good PSU and that would be the best route I think. A 400W Antec would be good, or 380.

Also, the more I think about it an AMD setup would definitely be cheaper, and you could probably get one pretty quiet.
8RDA+ = ~$85
1700+ @ SVC = ~$60
SVC GC69 HS/F = ~$8 --> (Check this out)
Buffalo 256MB PC3200 2 x $45
Now you could get a decent Radeon card, and case. This would be a sweet setup IMO, and it comes in much cheaper. Just another option, but if you really are trying to go with the lowest costing system, this AMD setup is going to murder everything.

edit: Oh yeah, Ward is done. Gatti pretty much was kickin the crap out of him until he broke his hand in the 3rd or 4th round. Then Ward was back in the fight. He never landed a big left hook to the body(his $$$ punch), but he did knock Gatti down in the 6th. He definitely wasn't anywhere near the level of Gatti, but after the breakage he started doing a lot better. Another classic fight between those two, and that 3 fight series was definitely one of the best of all time. I'm sure you read about it somewhere.

I'm digging that P4 setup you picked out (I'll have to wait a few days for the CL2.5 Buffalo tho ). I want to see what HT is all about and as such I'm willing to spend more on a P4 setup. As for case, CompUSA here has the Antec SLK2600 on sale and I'll throw in a 350W Antec PSU for ~$65 total. HD, the 8MB 120GB Maxtor is on sale at CompUSA for ~$80 after rebates...even though I don't need the space, the deals too good to pass up . OK this brings me to the video card:

Here's the options:
FIC AT009 RADEON 9000 PRO 64MB 4X AGP (powered by ATI) - OEM - $54

ATI OEM Sapphire ATI RADEON 9000 Atlantis PRO 128MB DDR DVI/TV-out, BULK - $89

ATI RADEON 8500LE 64MB DDR CRT/DVI/TV ,Dual Monitor support DVI-D + CRT only, BULK - $65

ATI OEM RADEON 8500 LE 128MB DDR DVI/CRT/TV - $82

ATI OEM RADEON 8500 64MB DDR AGP BULK ,POWER by ATI - $82

SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9200 64MB DVI/TV-out AGP BULK - $70

SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9200 128MB DVI/TV-out AGP BULK - $81

ABIT SILURO GF4 TI4200-8X 64MB TV/DVI RETAIL - $89

IMO it really comes down to the Ti4200 (64MB) in terms price/performance. Which one would you guys pick...or any other suggestions in the sub $90 video card category? Also that Northbridge fan won't be too loud will it? I can get a small Panaflo for that if thats a concern.

EDIT: Yeah I read about it on ESPN.com, I miss HBO here alot .

EDIT2: So the system now looks like this:

2.4C P4 - $183
Abit IS7-E - $100
2x256MB Buffalo Tech PC3200 CL2.5 RAM - $90
Abit Ti4200 64MB - $89
Antec SLK2600 w/ Antec 350W PSU - $60
Maxtor 120GB 8MB cache HD - $80
Win XP Pro - thru school

Already have:
Sony G400
Microsoft Keyboard/Mouse
Klipsch 4.1
TDK 8/4/4 CD-RW (Where's Un4given? )
Toshiba 8x DVD-ROM

This seems like a decent rig for about $600 with good overclocking potential.

[greg r]

I really would recommend buying from one of the four companies i mentioned before for RAM, i've never even heard of Bufallo Tech...
-Greg


edit- and btw, why do you want CAS 2.5 ram? get 2.0. Unless I'm missing something here I really can't understand your choice of RAM.

[Ramuman]

Originally posted by greg r
I really would recommend buying from one of the four companies i mentioned before for RAM, i've never even heard of Bufallo Tech...
-Greg


edit- and btw, why do you want CAS 2.5 ram? get 2.0. Unless I'm missing something here I really can't understand your choice of RAM.

Well basically CL2 RAM (i.e. something high end like Corsair XMS or Mushkin) will be expensive...to the point that I don't care about overclocking that much. I've heard good things about the Winbond modules and others here have recomended the Buffalo Tech modules. What FSB speeds do you think PC3200 RAM will start crapping out at?

[Rmk1130]

double the ram at least that shoudl make it pretty future proof. definetely get a maxtor hard drive. in my expirience they have required less defragmenting if any at all.